Game Review: Xcom 2 Review - war of the Chosen, Again the same story

Xcom is a bit strange duck in the bite when it comes to extensions. Instead of additional story, the series mainly brings out reforms of the original campaign with new units and additional features. Xcom 2 seems to deviate from that tune, by the narrative introduction of new factions and enemies. The resistance groups the 'Reapers' and 'Skirmishers' are not allowed, the Advent's three champions have a big mouth against their leaders, we end up in zombie horror levels; Hey Firaxis, this is cool, exciting, keep going!

At the beginning of War of the Chosen, it's really like playing a new campaign. But soon, the cool movie introductions stop and end up in the old story of Xcom 2, which was already a fairly clear remake of the Xcom 1 campaign. Very sinful and superfluous because the end of the story of Xcom 2 was a shopping cart for a new campaign.

"I'll get you next time, Power Rangers!"

Well, there is nothing left to do; to what is in this expansion. War of the Chosen introduces three Advent Adventists who cross you throughout the campaign. These are over-the-top figures that seem to come from the Power Rangers, but they are absolutely dangerous. They start with an overpowered set of forces and indebtedness that can certainly drive players into madness. They can suddenly emerge in every mission, changing a heroic 'save the citizens' mission in a panic in a panic 'save yourself first!' Mission.

They become somewhat easier to dominate when your soldiers get stronger during the campaign, but do not let them go too much: The Chosen continue to develop themselves with new powers. In order not to be completely out of control, the three new resistance groups (Reapers, Skirmishers and Templars) give you bonus forces and missions every month to strengthen yourself or attack The Chosen. In addition, each faction delivers a hero that is effective against one of The Chosen. The three heroes seem to be a very powerful addition, certainly at the beginning.

The Skirmisher hero is the most useful one. He is a kind of Ranger, but better in fights of a distance. The Skirmisher has a very handy hook attack that is more painful than Advent's blood-irritating snake attacks. The Reaper Hero is a Sharpshooter that is completely focused on Concealment. In itself very useful during missions in which you want to build your attack as equally quietly, but eventually your own Sharpshooters grow her in brute force against multiple opponents.

The Templar hero is a bit strange mix of everyone. She has the Sharpshooters gun attack, Rangers melee attack and psychic attacks like Psi Ops, but is less effective than all of these classes at their peak. She does have an ultra-handy move that she can be invulnerable after her melee attack. All in all, fun for the change, these new heroes, but you probably want to put your trusted units at the end of the campaign. They are also upgraded with two new systems.

Friends for life

First of all, soldiers now earn personal Ability Points and there is a common pool of experience points. These can be used to force forces that you normally need to buy or to give extra bonuses to your soldiers. In addition, your units are now also friends and girlfriends, which you can conclude with an official connection between units. This band continues to grow and adds extra power when sending the set together on mission, such as a free bonus action. Although Xcom is never really simple and every mistake will always be punished, the game became a bit too easy at the end because we could use so many rewards to our members.

The difficulty of War of the Chosen is a bit higher than that of Xcom 2. New enemies make eager use of Mind Control, by far the most annoying force throughout the Xcom universe. We have never had to walk so much with anti-psychic helmets in order not to bother. The addition of loosening hordes of zombies in the levels also gives a new tactical level to the game because your enemies can now fight for the first time while hiding in a corner.

Xcom's biggest challenge, however, remains the clever hit / miss system, with frequent attacks while attacking an enemy. Firaxis refuses to deviate from his concept because it wants to prevent save-scumming, but in practice it just cuts out needlessly well-behaved attacks. Fortunately, charging times for missions are shortened, so at least one of the basics of the base game is resolved. War of the Chosen is definitely a must for the players who missed Xcom 2, but feel a bit too much like a repeat for Xcom veterans.

Xcom 2: War of the Chosen has been tested on PC. The expansion is now available for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Conclusion

With the addition of three new factions, heroes, enemies and some fresh game mechanics, War of the Chosen feels like a new, more difficult campaign. But after an engaging, narrative start, the novelty diminishes and you are still playing the same story as in Xcom 2.

Thanks for reading.

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